


Google, how do you defect from Red's army

by orphan_account



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), The Crafting Dead
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Everything is the same but it really isn't, I could've been drawing but noooo, I'm Sorry, Nick Voice: this is a sound decision, Nick wakes up on seaport and Red is like 'yo join my army', for like five seconds - Freeform, genuinely I don't know why I wrote this, my brain wouldn't let go of the idea, team Nick but it's team Shelby, this isn't going to be good so don't expect it to be, tommy is here too, uhhhh spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:41:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26345770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: This isn't gonna be written well not is it gonna have a good plot or characterization but I had fun so I guess it counts??? Feel free to cancel me, the au was cool in concept, not really on paper.2nd person POV—You think your name is Nick, and you're about to make a bunch of really bad decisions.
Relationships: none mentioned
Kudos: 1





	Google, how do you defect from Red's army

**Author's Note:**

> Hi I'm sorry

You wake up and you know something is wrong. You're not sure how you know that. Maybe it's from just waking up, but you don't know your own name. Maybe that's what's wrong. There's a second bed in the room, on the other side. It's empty. Maybe that's it? 

No. Can't be. That's not what feels weird. So you find the closet, you tug on clothes that feel right (you think), and you head downstairs. No one's there. You're alone. So you head back upstairs, and you look around some more.

The door you came out of has something scribbled on it. Shelby and Nick. One of those is your name. You think it's Nick. You'll go with that. You check the other rooms. Still no one, still nothing. That is, until you catch movement out of a window. Someone's stumbling and swaying and—bleeding? A loud band rings out, and they're no longer doing any of those things. They were shot. You're not as alone as you thought.

They end up inside of your house, all covered in green, and wearing vests. There's three of them, but that's more than you. You hide in the closet of your room with a heavy textbook. They check the closet, and you end up throwing the textbook. You don't want to die, but you're pretty sure it'll be easier to run while they're distracted. They aren't distracted. 

The man with the red face paint (you hope it's paint) looks at you and grins. It's malicious and you know it, but you go with them anyway. They promise safety and food and medical supplies. You don't know much better. You don't know more than your name. You shouldn't trust them. 

But you do, and they've got a camp, and the people there are nicer than you thought they'd be. You're given water and food and a place to sleep. You're wary, and you feel like everyone else is, too. You get the feeling that you should sleep with one eye open here.

You're shaken awake. You need to leave, now. It's the middle of the night, and someone's said something about someone else bombing the island. You'll all die. The group is small. You all fit on one boat. It's cramped, but you are safe. The person who has the bunk above you introduces themself. You don't remember their name.

They're gone in the next week, you're not sure where to. You just know you've suddenly got a bunk bed to yourself. You're told they went ahead on a lifeboat to look for land faster. They don't come back, but Red says that's alright, because he's got a backup stock of food.

When you hit land weeks later, it's a quick unpack. The leader—that's Red—heads out with two men again. They come back within two hours. They've found a place to settle, and they've found another group willing to join. The base is set by sundown. The other group has merged fully into Red's by the end of the month.

On the third day of the next month, Red says he's found a kid. The kid is gagged and cuffed when he brings you to him. You can't find the key. You ask Red about it. He shakes his head like you should've known better. He says that when the people with the kid come, the group will get bigger. And if it doesn't, you'll have more supplies. He leaves you to guard the kid.

It makes you feel sick. You've been tricked, but you can't leave. They've shown you how to operate a gun, but you're a terrible shot. You wouldn't make it. So you sit on the floor and feel sorry for yourself and the kid in the tiger onesie. It takes a day for him to trust you enough for you to get close enough to take the gag off. It's the least you can do.

You find him food that isn't meat, because you're finally catching on, and you find him water. His name is Jordan. He's only seven. He misses his group. He was finally safe with them. You're sure you almost cry. 

His group shows up the next day, guns blazing. A man in a mask and a girl with red hair. Jordan points at them through the window. That's them, he tells you. You nod. You'll get into trouble for this, but you leave some food and water in the room. You tell Jordan to run away with them as fast as he can. You climb onto a bookshelf. The ceiling is made of shitty squares that could be cardboard or corkboard. 

You hear the two coming up the stairs, and you tell Jordan to wait for them. You hide in the ceiling, and when you're sure they're out of the building, you come back down. You're going to be in so much trouble.

There's an explosion a few days later, but it's far enough away from the base that you don't worry as much as you probably should. Red returns from his scouting mission. You avoid him like the plague. You're only lucky you haven't died yet, but he looks happy enough that you're sure someone else must have.

You haven't touched meat since you've put the pieces together. It makes you feel like you'll pass out. You've got a stash of corn and peaches, though. The taste becomes bland after a while, but it's better than the alternative. 

Someone else tries to introduce themself to you, but you forget them too. He talks to you the next day anyway. His name's Tommy, and apparently he's in the same situation as you. There's no silent deal of safety. There's no wordless agreement that you'll break away and find a new group. You hand him a can of corn. He says something about a supply run. The day goes on.

There's another threat later on. More napalm. The zombies are getting to be too much. Red is scarily good at finding these things out before they happen. He says he has a radio, but you've never seen one in the camp. You pack up to move on anyway.

Red comes back with a transport bus. It isn't big enough to fit everyone, not at all, but Tommy knows how to hot-wire cars, and someone else knows where to find gas. You get out of the city. You're not safe, but you've got corn and peaches and a sleeping bag and other people who are in the exact same storm as you.

When you look out of the back window, you see Jordan's group in the distance, running toward the docks. At least he's getting out.

You eventually find a smaller city, tucked into the mountains. Heyworth. You all clear out the walkers, make a base of the area. You feel bad for helping him, but Red has you and a few others copy a message down onto countless bits of paper. That same small group is sent out to throw the papers around. Spreading the word to people that aren't there.

But then people do show up. You're pretty sure that dread is becoming a permanent feeling, now. It's Jordan's group, but he's not there. You're glad for that, because no kid should be here, but at the same time you're scared. Where did he go? They probably found someone to watch him. Good.

And then a guy you haven't seen yet starts yelling at Red. About how he knows what he did, and about how he's going to make Red pay. Red doesn't move much. A slight twitch of the fingers. The signal for the people hiding the buildings surrounding you. 

The girl with the red hair flicks her eyes around until she lands on you. She looks like she's saying something, but it's blocked out by the guy from before running at Red (and by direction, toward you and the others with Red). You all scatter. Red leads him through the winding streets easily. The rest of the group is lost in minutes. 

You hide in the building that you know Red will lead the guy to. Red knocks him out, tells you to cuff him, and starts setting up a barricade. You make sure the restrains are loose enough for an easy escape. You and Red climb the stairs and make a jump out of a hole in the wall. You're gone before the group can find their friend again. You're not sure you'd wanna be there when that happened, anyway.

You hate that the trap works twice. Three more people come running in. They're calling around for another group. You take a wild guess and assume they're with the first one. Still no Jordan. 

This time, Red signals to aim. To fire. You squeeze your eyes shut and hope you hit a building, but everyone is shooting, and someone screams, and you hope you didn't fire that bullet. When you open your eyes again, Red gives the signal to take the three in. To the base. Not to a random building. To the base. These ones aren't getting out.

The pool of dread is becoming your best friend.

You're sent down to bring two of them food. You hear them whispering through the echo-y hallways. You're glad that they're still thinking of escaping. Maybe you'll help them. Yeah. And if you can't, you'll at least give them extra water. 

You didn't expect for the guy in purple to run at the bars, yelling. He's got to be at least six feet, and you're probably the smallest guy in Red's army. You stumble back toward the second cell, and after a second or two, the other guy pushes you back to the middle of the hallway. They laugh. Looking back, it is funny, but in the moment you're terrified.

Not particularly of them (they are scary, though), but more so of if you screamed or not. No one's come down the hall, so you assume you didn't. That lifts some sort of anxiety off of your shoulders, but not too much. You're not sure what's possessing you to help them. Maybe it's the knowledge of what Red does, maybe it's you finally getting better with a weapon, maybe it's just because maybe you can find a safer place, you're not sure. You just need to help them.

You reach for the keys, but they aren't there. In case you haven't said it enough, dread is your blood and air at this point, with panic being a close contender. None of the vest pockets have the keys, they aren't on the ground, and you're going to die. Not only can you no longer get them out, you lost the keys. The ring of keys to the base. Why were they on a ring? Did they have spares? Copies?

You turn as the guy in sunglasses laughs harder. He holds up the keys, and he looks both angry and amused at the same time as he asks, "You're looking for these, huh?"

You stop for a moment, and just stare. And you join them laughing, though relieved and not triumphant. And then they stop laughing, and sunglasses guy looks almost offended. You stop laughing. He makes a face and asks what that was for. Why the hell you were laughing. The dread is back.

"Just—I dunno—I wasn't expecting that. You'll, uh, you'll make this plan a lot easier. There's one more guy that's supposed to come down here in a bit, but, uh, after that, night guard is—it's bad, really weak. Meet me in the hall with the skull."

"And why the hell should we believe you?"

"You really shouldn't, but I'll figure out where your friend is. I'll make sure she's okay, or I'll, I'll try. Promise."

They don't believe you. That's fine. Something tells you they'll listen anyway. You toss some water and food to them, and you book it out of there. You don't have the strongest of wills, and they are scary.

You find their friend in a different hall. She's bleeding from a bullet wound in her leg. It makes sense that Red would put her here—it's the hall he's been using to put his food. The ones that will die faster, supposedly. She's the first in a while, you know she doesn't have too much longer. You hear someone else walk by. That should be the guard headed to the other cell hall. It's now or never. 

And then the chef—you want to gag—walks in. You make a quick excuse of checking to make sure she's not dead yet. He believes you, asks you to help him take her to the kitchen. You match the fear in her eyes. The cell is opened and you help her stumble out. The chef walks ahead, and you whisper to the prisoner that she's going to get out soon, that her friends are coming, they're safe. You don't blame her for not believing you. 

You're told to wait outside of the door to the kitchen. Make sure no one gets in or out. Security. You're just glad that he takes his time. 

The two from before show up soon enough. Tall Guy has a gun, so you know they've found the armory. Sunglasses has a knife. You raise your hands and shuffle to the side to let them through the door. You whisper that she's in there, but they're running out of time. 

You ignore the sound of a fight, the sound of the chef thudding on the floor. You wait for them, and when they come out of the room, Tall Guy cuffs you. That's smart. Sunglasses and Bleeding (you need to find something else to call them, really) stay in the back. Sunglasses tell you to tell them how to get out. You don't miss the silent threat of Tall Guy's gun. 

And then Red's men figure out that Sunglasses and Tall Guy aren't there anymore, that there's no noise coming from the kitchen anymore. They're at the end of the hall, they see you all, and they're headed for you, armed. The nearest door is Red's, and you pray he isn't in there as the four of you run into the room and lock the door behind you. It's not a dead end, you know Red has routes everywhere, but you can't focus right now. Sunglasses are cursing and shouting, Tall Guy looks like he's gonna puke (there's bodies in the corner, you don't blame him), and Bleeding is, well, bleeding. She doesn't look good. 

Sunglasses wheels around to you, he's shouting something about blaming you for this. Which adds people to the blame list, because at first he was saying it was his fault. You think he might be breaking down right now, which, fair. He's found a rock and you're ignoring his threats to throw it at you. 

He throws it at the wall instead. It hits something under Red's desk, and that something triggers another thing, and that thing opens a door. None of you question it, you just run through. And right into what looks like a torture room.

Bleeding really looks like she's going to pass out now. Sunglasses screams some more. Tall Guy actually pukes this time, off on the corner. Sunglasses stares at the weapons on the wall, opens the doors he shouldn't, freezes at the beds of nails. He finally notices the stairway out.

"Come on, I know it's really really bad right now, but we need to get out!"

You hope they listen. They do. Tall Guy hands the gun off to Sunglasses, who takes up the lead this time. You're in the middle (so you don't escape) and Bleeding is helped up the stairs by Tall Guy. You think her name is Jet, by what Tall Guy is saying, but Sunglasses calls her Jess. You'll call her J until further notice. They're all probably thinking of you as something equally as non-specific. 

Not the point.

The stairs lead to a ladder, and the ladder leads to a hatch, and that hatch leads to—what looks like the same room Red held Grudge Guy in. You're above the ground, here, but there's still a large patrol out. 

Sunglasses breaks a window. Tall Guy hands J a med pack and a splint. You're assigned crutch duty. Sunglasses leads you guys out. Red's Men almost catch you a number of times, but you end up getting all the way out, you make it to the forest. And then J passes out, and you're then reassigned supervised piggyback duty. 

You walk for hours until you see rooftops in the distance. Sunglasses tells you to hand J (who's name you're figuring out is actually Jess) to Barney (which is apparently Tall Guy's name). You do so gladly. You're not a strong person, and you've felt the ache in your bones for the past hour or so. 

By the time you finally get to the edge of the city, Jess is awake and you're back on crutch duty. Again, fair. If this is how they test their trust in you, you'll go with it. Sunglasses leads you all into the city, Barney complains about not being able to shoot the walkers. You point out a hospital, and Sunglasses starts making his way over there. You follow, but cautiously, because they still haven't uncuffed you, and you've got an injured person using you to help her walk. 

Barney goes ahead, between Sunglasses and you and Jess. He and Sunglasses take out any of the walkers they find on the way, and at this point you're sure that screaming loudly in order to do so is just a part of the group brand.

There's a door at the end of one hallway, one that's still closed. Jess leans on a wall, and Sunglasses tells you to open the door. You would've said something about the cuffs by now if you weren't still scared shitless of everything this group did. You open it, and Sunglasses runs in yelling, gun raised. Barney tells someone to put their hands up, and you help Jess in. 

The doctor at the table has decided that actually, he doesn't want to put his hands up. So he keeps working while Sunglasses and Barney interrogate him. You and Jess sit in a corner. The doctor notices Jess. He says something about being able to help. Sunglasses allows it, but only because Jess is probably closer to dying than any of you are comfortable with at the moment. 

She gets fixed up faster than you thought was possible. The doctor demands your names. Sunglasses introduces himself as Sky. Barney and Jess follow through, and then you do as well (you're still not sure if your name is actually Nick or if you woke up in someone else's house, but you've been using the name for months, and it feels right, so it probably is your name). Sky makes a face, says something along the lines of 'How can Red's army be made up of scaredy cats named Nick and still be intimidating'. Honestly, you don't know the answer.

The doctor's name is Ross. He packs up his supplies, and you're all on the road again. Something about a cure for Ghetto. You don't know who that is, but Jess and Barney seem to know, and they're very concerned. You guess you should be, too. You hold your tongue on asking any questions about the cure. You don't exactly trust these guys yet, and you don't know what they could do if you annoyed them too much, but you'll help where you can.

You make it to DC within the next week. It's getting colder, and you're glad for the gas mask you're wearing. It's not the most comfortable, and the eyes fog up all the time, but it keeps you somewhat insulated. You're not sure you should keep wearing it. You need to find different clothes. You're very obviously dressed like Red's Men. No wonder they don't trust you. 

Before you meet up with the other group, Barney drags you off to go find something else to wear. The rest of the group apparently agrees with your internal monologue. You don't like the feeling of your face being out in the open. The gas mask was on for so long, you guess you got used to it. Barney tosses a scarf at you, uncuffs you, and pushes you into a side room to change.

You two join up with the group a few minutes later. You continue on, through the city and toward the center. There's a tall pencil building you know you're actively ignoring the name of, and that's about all you're willing to take in right now. You're still caught up on the fact that they haven't re-cuffed you yet. You guess you look a lot less threatening now. And the extra hands are probably useful. 

And then you make it to the Whitehouse.

And then you split up (Ross and Barney, You and Jess and Sky).

And then you find the other group. 

(Jordan isn't there.)

And then they tell you about Ross.

And then you run to get Barny.

And then Ross isn't there.

And then Barney is a walker.

And then Barney is dead.

And then the group is down one.

**Author's Note:**

> I genuinely don't know if this was good or not, but if you got this far, thank you and I am once again sorry


End file.
